The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Marathi film gets Lankesh Chitra award

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 07, 2007
ePaper

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Marathi film gets Lankesh Chitra award

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: "Maati Maay", the Marathi film directed by Chitra Palekar, has won the 2006 Lankesh Chitra Prashasti. The film has been chosen the best debut film among the 18 entries for the award this year.

The award has been instituted by filmmaker Kavitha Lankesh in memory of her father P. Lankesh, the iconic writer and filmmaker.

Ms. Lankesh told presspersons here on Tuesday that Malayalam film "Sancharram" and Bengali film "Herbert" had won the 2004 and 2005 Lankesh Award respectively.

"Maati Maay" was adjudged the best by a four-member jury comprising film director B. Suresh, writer P. Chandrika, film critic Gangadhar Mudaliar besides Ms. Kavitha Lankesh.

"Though Maati Maay is Ms. Palekar's directorial debut, it deserves to be called a classic for its theme. The award — a citation, a silver medal and a cash prize of Rs. 10,000 — will be presented to Ms. Palekar on March 8, which happens to be the 72nd birth anniversary of my father," she said.

The award presentation ceremony would be held at Ravindra Kalakshetra at 6 p.m., which would be followed by the screening of the film, she said.

Appreciating the other entries for the award, Ms. Kavitha said she wished to organise a "Lankesh Film Festival" from next year so that everyone could watch such serious and meaningful films. "All the 18 entries that we received are meaningful movies and I wish everyone gets an opportunity to watch them," she said.

One of the jury members, B. Suresh, said the State Government or the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce should have instituted the Lankesh Award. "Mr. Lankesh, who passed away in 2000, had won the national award for his very first film `Pallavi'. Kavitha Lankesh too had the national award for her debut film `Deveri' based on Lankesh's novel. That is why we think it is apt that we should confer this award on a debut director," he said.

Another member, P. Chandrika, hoped the award would not only encourage new talent but also go a long way in improving the quality of Indian cinema.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka

News Update

Stories in this Section